A 1' I' EN 1)1 \. 197 



Savaiy's ejaculation on snow-tracking the hare is more aniusiiii; than 

 poetical : 



O nix ! improba nix ! generosii; invisa Diana*, Alb. Diana; 



Pcrnicies leporum ! venantum ignobile vulgus j 



Quam votis petit assiduis, ut ca;de cruenta, 

 Depopuletur agros! &c. 



The many wily inventions devised by man's ingenuity of old for 

 ensnaring noxious and timid animals, appear to us more like instru- 

 ments of lawless poaching, than fair hunting, and fully justify the 

 conclusion of Arrian's 24th chapter de Venatione ; wherein, with the 

 spirit of a genuine courser, he exclaims, " there is as much difference 

 between a fair trial of speed in a good run, and ensnaring a poor 

 animal without an effort, as between the secret piratical assaults of 

 robbers at sea, and the victorious naval engagements of the Athe- 

 nians at Artemisium, at Salamis, at Psyttalia, and at Cyprus." 



It has been erroneously stated by Montfaucon and others, that the Antiq. Expi. 



. Tom. III. L. III. 



use 01 nets and snares was not an exercise of pleasure to men or e. iv. 



quality, but only to peasants, and persons of inferior grade ; — the 

 praise of a noble employment being, on this view, alone awarded to 

 hunting with dogs, or being armed for the sport with venabula, 

 hastilia, &c. either on foot or horseback. But this distinction, how- 

 ever plausible in theory, is not tenable in fact. Discreditable as the 

 use of snares may be deemed, and irreconcilable to modern taste, the 

 philosophic recluse of Scillus, the patrician Xenophon, and every 

 other sportsman, whether high or low, of the classic ages, must plead 

 guilty to their employment : 



ducuntur et ipsi Manilii L. v. 



Retibus, ct claudunt campos formidine mortis, 

 Mendacesque parant foveas, laqueosque tenaces, 

 Currentesque feras pedicarum compede nectunt, 

 Aut canibus ferrove necant, prjedasque reportant. 



I do not mean that the gentry had not the aid of servants in these as 

 in other menial occupations — (for it is evident that Xenophon's 

 npKvuipos was a servant ; and on the huntsman's tomb, recorded by 

 Pausanias in Achaicis c. xxii., by the side of the principal is the 

 (>iKiTT)s uKoPTia e^w»', Kai I'tywv Kvvas eirirribeias drjpeuovffiv auOpwirois — 

 The ostentation too of the Horatian Gargilius, 



